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Ava DuVernay can still remember the moment she decided to become a filmmaker. She was already more than a dozen years into her career as a successful publicist when she stood on an East Los Angeles street corner watching Michael Mann direct “Collateral.”

Tired of playing observer, DuVernay got the yen to step behind the camera herself.

“I remember looking around and seeing Javier Bardem, Jada Pinkett and Jamie Foxx doing their scenes,” she says. “I thought, ‘I have something to say too. I have stories to tell that could take place on these very streets involving people who look just like that.’ And after that I began to write my first script.”

Switching careers wasn’t easy for DuVernay but she did it. Her first movie, back in 2008, was the hip-hop documentary “This Is The Life.” A few years later came the dramas “I Will Follow” and “Middle of Nowhere,” which earned her the best director award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Now, DuVernay is making a big splash with “Selma,” a look at three crucial months in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Not only has the film netted rave reviews during its limited release run (its wide release is Jan. 9), but the filmmaker has good odds of becoming the first African-American woman nominated for a best director Oscar.

“I don’t think about that because I don’t think it will happen, frankly,” says the filmmaker, 42. “There’s no precedent for it. And it’s not something I desire. I’m really just focused on the film, which is a love letter to my people. And a love letter to all people who believe in dignity.

“There’s so much that’s going on right now that I’m scared and wounded by, like what happened with Eric Gardner. He was strangled on tape and there have been no repercussions. That’s what is in my head more than gowns and accolades and those kinds of things.”

“Selma” chronicles a string of historical events that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At the center of the action is Dr. Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo), who attempted three times to carry out a peaceful procession from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. The film depicts not only bloody confrontations but also the political wrangling involved in getting the bill passed.

DuVernay was determined to showcase this three-month juncture of King’s life because it was pivotal in many ways.

“The movie looks at King at the height of his powers,” says DuVernay. “He’d just won the Nobel Prize. The ‘I have a dream’ speech was out there in the world. He’s an international figure at this point. I thought it would be fascinating to look at a leader not on the rise or in his sunset, but at his most potent.

“I wanted to look at his choices at that moment as he hit the streets again and began organizing at a grass roots level to push this law through.”

While the focus of the film is on politics, “Selma” is also a portrait of a man with conviction as well as doubts and fears. The Martin Luther King, Jr. seen in “Selma” is dealing with a number of personal crises, including his infidelities and how they impact his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo.)

“There’s a way to do it where you’re salacious and there’s a way to do it where you’re focusing on the more human side of Dr. King, and what happened when there was an indiscretion in the marriage,” says the filmmaker.

As well as making sure King was presented as a man and not a myth, DuVernay was also adamant about celebrating other members of the Civil Rights movement who helped King get the Voting Rights Act passed into law.

“King didn’t stand alone,” says DuVernay. “The movie is called ‘Selma’ not ‘King.’ It’s really about the movement. King is at the center, and this is the first film released in theaters by a major studio with King as the center. But he was a leader among leaders. And all of these other people were brilliant at strategizing and sharing ideas too. He was the one they chose to follow, and lift up. And I think that’s fascinating.”

The cast of “Selma” is huge and includes British actor Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon Johnson, Tim Roth as Gov. George Wallace, Cuba Gooding Jr. as civil rights attorney Fred Gray, rapper Common as desegregationist James Bevel, Giovanni Ribisi as LBJ consultant Lee C. White, Andrew Holland as the Rev. Andrew Young and producer Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper, a woman who wouldn’t give up trying to vote despite being turned away and harassed before she could reach the polls.

DuVernay describes “Selma” as a story about the importance of making your voice heard.

“It’s a story about the power of protest and finding a way to amplify your concerns. I hope this piece of art can meet this cultural moment, and maybe have some impact on the dialogue or conversation.”

DuVernay first found her voice as a publicist. After graduating from UCLA, she worked for 20th Century Fox. A few years later, she started her own marketing firm called DVA Media + Marketing. Over the course of her career as a publicist, she toiled alongside such filmmakers as Clint Eastwood, Bill Condon, Lee Daniels and Steven Spielberg.

“Selma” had already been in the works for seven years by the time DuVernay became involved. Directors like Stephen Frears, Spike Lee and Lee Daniels expressed interest in the project at various times but failed to get it made.

A few years into the process, Oyelowo was sent the script and almost immediately thought of DuVernay, who, by then, had directed him in “Middle of Nowhere.”

The actor recommended the filmmaker to the producers (including Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner at Plan B) and, about a year ago, DuVernay was tapped to direct. The project got a big boost when Oprah Winfrey signed on as an additional producer.

DuVernay knew she wanted to set the action in Selma, in some of the same houses and government buildings where the action initially unfolded.

Particularly powerful for DuVernay was shooting on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, which was the sight of a nasty clash between protestors and police.

“My mother actually works in Selma, and she crosses that bridge every day,” says DuVernay. “And my father is from a small town called Hayneville, which is where you are when you come off the bridge. And so being in that place that means so much to my family, directing a scene about the loss of the black body – there was definitely a unique energy which helped us with our work.”

On another day, DuVernay set up her cameras on the steps of Montgomery’s state capital where decades ago Gov. George Wallace had tried to stop King from making one of his most famous speeches.

“The steps we stood on were the very steps King stood on,” says the filmmaker. “There was a poignancy of being a black woman directing that scene, and shutting down the streets of the capital of Alabama. My father got off his night shift and was there to witness us shooting those scenes. Just from the look in his eyes, I could tell it meant a lot to him.”